Tests of controlled phone clusters have handled specific computing jobs, but the results do not show that smartphones spread across the internet can replace centralized infrastructure for large-scale artificial intelligence.
Acurast announced Sept. 29, 2026, that its network included more than 318,000 phones in more than 175 countries.
In controlled tests published in May 2025, smartphone clusters performed competitively on some image-recognition workloads.
Its tests used strong 5 GHz Wi-Fi, devices with screens off and limits on network activity from other apps.
Phone-based systems need workloads that fit their smaller capacity, and the tests do not establish performance across a widely distributed network.